New York — Tomatoes, found everywhere from fast-food sandwiches to upscale cuisine, play a new role off the plate: an uncomfortable reminder of rising costs.
Prices for those red orbs have risen more than any other food product over the past year to cement their place as one of today’s consumer headaches.
“Tomatoes have become a symbol of something much deeper,” says Isaac Bernal Carbajo, a New York City chef who laments that “life’s simplest pleasures” are falling victim to rising prices. “Something as basic as buying fresh vegetables is starting to become a serious financial decision for many families.”
Tomato prices have risen by almost 40% compared to last year, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Latest consumer price indexincreases that dwarf other groceries, Including coffee (up 18.5%)and roast beef (up 17.8%) and frozen fish and seafood (up 12%), among other products that have become a symbol of affordability pressure in America.
A A separate measure of inflation Data released Thursday showed that overall prices rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier, the highest reading in nearly three years.
Besides crop yields, experts blame rising tomato prices, in part, on two pillars of President Donald Trump’s policies in his second term: the Iran war and tariffs. The war led to higher gas prices and increased shipping costs. Meanwhile, the United States Withdrew from an agreement allowing the import of tomatoes duty-free From Mexico, which grows most of America’s supplies.
“It’s a perfect storm of trade policy, extreme weather and Middle East politics,” says Osha Healey, an economist at Wichita State University.
US tomato growers cheered the withdrawal from the tomato deal last July, saying it would help rebuild their shrinking industry. But for consumers, it was painful. Although the United States withdrew from the tomato deal with Mexico in July, it took some time to see the impact in the production corridor, with imports increasing in late winter and early spring.
When the tomatoes arrived, a 17% tariff was imposed on them.
“Tariffs are undeniably a big driver of price inflation,” says Brett Massimino, a business professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. “Since the United States depends on Mexico for most of its tomato supplies, any changes in trade policy could have a significant impact.”
US customs duties collected The value of tomatoes has ballooned from just $16,424 in 2024 to nearly $4.6 million, according to federal data, a staggering 27,879% increase.
As the cost dropped, angry shoppers pulled out their phones in the produce aisle and filmed videos lamenting costs they said had quadrupled, with some vowing to plant a garden to avoid prices as high as $8 a pound. But the effect was more noticeable for companies that rely on tomatoes as a main ingredient in their kitchens.
MarginEdge, which tracks restaurant prices, says grape tomatoes increased the most — 65% in just one month — but prices rose across all types of tomatoes.
Philip Coles, a professor of supply chain management at Lehigh University, says prices should come down later in the year when locally grown tomatoes are harvested. He adds that higher prices “will motivate farmers to increase their plantings to meet demand, but this takes longer because of the lead time.”
Meanwhile, this is translating into huge success for companies like Snarf’s Sandwiches, which puts tomatoes in almost every sandwich it makes.
Cases of tomatoes went from costing $27 to $93 within a year, as well as rising expenses for other ingredients including bread and beef, as well as increased labor costs, said Wayne Humphrey, chief operating officer of Snarf, which operates dozens of stores in Colorado, Missouri and Texas.
“This single component now costs us more than $1.7 million in additional spending annually,” Humphrey says. “Mathematics has become difficult to ignore.”
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Associated Press writer Dee Ann Durbin contributed to this report. Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky